Back to News ›October 26, 2016 – WesTech Engineering, Inc., (WesTech) an employee-owned, leading provider of municipal and industrial solutions for wastewater treatment, water reuse and clean drinking water based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is leading an initiative to help provide clean drinking water to Haitians who have been hard hit by Hurricane Matthew.

Spearheading the effort, WesTech employees funded the purchase of 250 portable Hydraid® BioSand water filters capable of converting contaminated water into safe drinking water. Each of the Hydraid units can provide 15 gallons of clean water per day, supporting about 15 people. Combined, the donation of 250 filters is giving clean drinking water to more than 3,700 Haitians daily. The Hydraid units are designed to provide a lifetime of use.

“Our thoughts are with the people in Haiti in the devastating wake of Hurricane Matthew, which left 50 percent of them without access to safe drinking water,” said Rex Plaizier, CEO of WesTech. “We hope that WesTech’s knowledge of water technologies, coupled with the company’s commitment to benefit humanity, can make a difference in fighting the outbreak of water-borne illness such as cholera, which is so common after such devastation.”

The donation effort is being led by WesTech employees, through the company’s Employee Service Committee, with the help of nonprofits Pure Water for the World and Reciprocal Ministries, which provide distribution of the filters through an extensive network of people on the ground in Haiti.

This is not WesTech’s first brush with water purification humanitarian efforts. As early as 2010, the company began testing portable water purification systems in the wake of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. The Hydraid filter was chosen, and WesTech’s employees donated 400 of the filtration units, providing clean water for 6,000 Haitians. And again in 2012, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WesTech employees donated 350 Hydraid units to provide clean drinking water to more than 5,000 Congolese in the wake of that country’s drinking water supply crisis.

“While hurricanes and natural disasters wreak havoc, the true cost to human lives comes in the aftermath,” added Allan Strong, Engineering Supervisor at WesTech. “Through donations directly from WesTech employees, matching funds provided by WesTech, and additional funds raised by crowd sourcing, we are hoping to provide more than 400 Hydraid filters to the people of Haiti, capable of supplying 6,000 Haitians with clean drinking water every day.”